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Date: | Sun, 14 Oct 2007 17:04:11 -0700 |
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Thanks, Bill, for the background detail.
Your one comment which needs further discussion perhaps is the following:
'Errors drop away when students do lots of writing, and
those that don't drop away can be handled on an individual basis.'
This is not something that I have found though my experience is miniscule
compared to yours. The same argument was made for ESL communicative
language teaching. In other words, providing learners were immersed in
substantial doses of conversation, they would naturally correct their
errors. This did not prove to be case. In fact, what happened was the
beginning of the fossilisation of the errors which were not brought to the
learners' attention. The same happens. by the way, with untutored
immigrants I play chess every day with a 70 year-old Serbian who can
express whatever he wishes in English but cannot utter a 'sentence' without
errors in it and he's been speaking English for decades.
I would not wish to cast doubt on your assertion as it is clearly based on
your long experience; however, I wonder if you have thought about the nature
of this process of self-correction that you witnessed - particularly as it
goes against what has been reported in much of the relevant literature.
It would be useful if other members of the List were to allow us to benefit
from their experiences. Have they, I wonder, had the same experience of
self correction as yours.
Ron.
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